1. The Science of Biology!
Chapter 1

2. What is Science?
Science is not just a set of never-changing facts – many “facts” will change as we gain more information about the world around us
Science is a way of knowing!
Science is an organized way of gathering and analyzing evidence about the natural world
Science is a process!

3. Goals of Science
Provide natural explanations for events in the natural world
Use those explanations to understand patterns in nature
Make useful predictions about natural events
Learning science is more than understanding what we know, it’s understanding what we don’t know!

4. Scientific Method
You use scientific thinking all the time – every time you try to solve a problem
Why won’t the car start?
Why do I feel sick?
Why is my phone not working?
Why can’t I log on to Facebook?
Scientific method involves observing & asking questions, making inferences, forming hypotheses, conducting experiments, collecting & analyzing data and drawing conclusions

5. Scientific Method
The first step in the scientific method is observation – usually that you have a problem or a question
Can use all your senses to make an observation
Can also use tools in the laboratory (or home) to help you make those observations – a scale that shows you have gained weight
Observation also involves asking questions about what you observe – Why did I gain weight?

6. Scientific Method
After observation of an initial problem or question, scientists use more observations to make inferences
An inference is a logical interpretation based on what scientists already know
Then a scientist will make a hypothesis – a scientific explanation for a set of observations that can be tested

7. Scientific Method
In order to test a scientific hypothesis, a scientist will design a detailed experiment
An experiment will keep track of specific variables – e.g. temperature, time, mass, etc
If possible, an experiment should only test 1 variable, and all others should be controlled
A control variable will not change at all but you can have a deliberately changing variable called the independent variable.
The dependent variable is what you measure

8. Scientific Method
An experiment can also have control groups and experimental groups.
The control group(s) in a medical experiment may get a placebo instead of the drug
The experimental group(s) would actually get the drug
Most experiments have many experimental groups to observe varying degrees of the independent variable

9. Scientific Method
Once an experiment is designed, it must be carried out and data needs to be collected and analyzed
There are 2 types of data – qualitative and quantitative
Qualitative data do not contain numbers and are descriptive (The water got hot.)
Quantitative data contain numbers and have specific units (The temperature increased to 86oC.)

10. Scientific Method
Once all the data has been collected, the next step is to analyze the results
What does the data mean?
What are the sources of error?
Does the data support the hypothesis I made?
Statistical analysis may be used
Conclusions are drawn and further experiments or questions arise
What happens next?

11. Scientific Method
Evidence from many scientific studies may support several related hypotheses in a way that scientists pose a scientific theory.
A scientific theory applies to a well tested explanation that unifies a broad range of observations and hypotheses and enables scientists to make accurate predictions about new situations

12. LIFE!! Now that we know how science in general works, what is biology?
Biology is the study of LIFE
What is life?
It may be difficult to define life exactly, but all living things definitely do have certain characteristics in common
WHAT DO YOU THINK MAKES SOMETHING ALIVE?

13. LIFE!! Made of cells  we’ll get to cells later
Have genetic material  called DNA
Obtain/use materials (energy)  metabolism
Grow and develop
Reproduce  may not be sexual reproduction
Respond to their environment
Maintain a stable internal environment (homeostasis)
Pg 18-19

14. LIFE!! What are the BIG IDEAS in Biology?
Cellular basis of life – all life is made of cells and cells are the basic unit of life
Information and heredity – living things are based on a universal genetic code (DNA & RNA)
Homeostasis – living things need to maintain a stable internal environment and many processes cells and organisms go through are trying to maintain homeostasis
Structure & Function – the structure of something gives clues to its function, and vice versa
Pg 20-21